John Biggs

Biggs has written for the New York Times, InSync, USA Weekend, Popular Mechanics, Popular Science, Money and a number of other outlets on technology and wristwatches. He is the former editor-in-chief of Gizmodo.com and lives in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn. You can Tweet him here. Email him directly at john@techcrunch.com.

Disclosures:
John is an unpaid advisor to Riffle, a social books platform.
John is CEO of Freeport Mobile, Inc. Bre Pettis, formerly of Makerbot, is an investor.

, retired on January 30 and is now posting in his dotage as he putters around the house playing guitar and looking at cereal.
After 17 years of hard-core programming, it’s kind of silly to see this guy posting to his Vista blog in a manner not befitting the guy that ordered a bunch of pale programmers to make an Aero “Glass” interface, but it’s nice that Bill… Read More

CrunchGear has some exclusive info on a Zune-enabled phone coming from Microsoft later this year. Hot on the heels of Vista, we can’t be sure if this is a software addition to their current mobile line up or an actual device, but now that they’re in the race with the Zune itself, it makes sense they’ll try to beat the iPhone at its own game. More details to come but check… Read More

Well this is a fine kettle of fish. Windows has just launched beta versions of their 32- and 64-bit syncing software, Windows Mobile Device Center, or NAMBLA. The software is obviously prettier than ActiveSync and it includes all the regular sync junk along with media sync, on device file-browsing, and improved set-up and recognition.
I never thought I’d say this, but Windows is… Read More

Apple and Cisco have agreed to keep talking about the iPhone and will not sue until Apple has had a good sit-down with Dr. Phil and decides that yes, it wants this baby.
SAN FRANCISCO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Apple and Cisco have agreed to extend the time for Apple to respond to the lawsuit to allow for discussions between the companies with the aim of reaching agreement on trademark rights… Read More

Take a look at this screengrab from an AMD machine running Linux. What are we seeing? Wobbly, transparent windows, hot UI effects, an amazing 3D task switcher, and enough eye-candy to make Vista Ultimate look like Midnight Commander.
I’m not saying we all go out and pick up a copy of Ubuntu, but maybe that’s actually what I’m saying. What is this machine running? An older… Read More

Wii: Great for babies, the mentally deficient.
It seems that Sony’s games division lost 54.2 billion yen ($445 million dollars) after the release of the PS3 this year. The company attributes the loss to problems during the launch including a general inability to make any units available to anyone. They also had some kind of problem with exploding batteries.
In related news, the Times… Read More

PC World, a British computer superstore, has stopped ordering floppies and will stop selling them when their on-hand supplies run out. While this is not news to us super nerds, it’s important to note that we once were able to drag files over back and forth between computers on little disks of spinning plastic that could hold 1.44 megabytes of data.
Let’s all bow our heads for a… Read More

Canon just announced the HV20, a 1080i HD camera with building in hard drive. The camera uses Canon’s 1920 x 1080 CMOS and can take 24p cinema style video along with 3.1-megapixel stills.
It includes a hot shoe for external light sources and microphones. 10x zoom and mini HDMI — wow! — round out the package. Strangely enough there is no mention of hard drive size but it does… Read More

slightly embarrassing turn on the Daily Show, Bill and Steve finally pushed Windows Vista out onto the world. As I write these words her majesty, the Vista, is installing herself on my PC, grinding away at my RAID like a champ. Read More

Gizmo, a VOIP service, is now available through your browser using a tiny Flash plugin. It requires a quick install and some configuration, but after that you can make video and voice calls to Gizmo users and some POTS phones.
Looks like you need a login to taste the magic, so head over to to get it and then give it a go.
Gizmo, now making browser based phone calls [GigaOm] Read More

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=4662636869909322164&hl=en
Digg just found this great 60 minute documentary on Tetris. I’d suggest saving this link and heading home for a good viewing because it’s really an amazing documentary. They literally make the story of a simple Russian puzzle game into a fascinating thriller. Way to go, loyal subjects of the Queen. Read More

Let’s take a look at this first paragraph. Ahem…
Verizon Wireless, the No. 2 U.S. cellphone carrier, passed on the chance to be the exclusive distributor of the iPhone almost two years ago, balking at Apple’s rich financial terms and other demands.
Let’s read that again…
Verizon Wireless, the No. 2 U.S. cellphone carrier, passed on the chance to be the… Read More

This is a 23 minute demo for a new video game company and their amazing product, something to do with Lego pirates and Sponge Bob. It’s really long, but it’s early and the coffee takes a while to cool and it’s almost painful to watch the demo go off the rails — completely on purpose. Read More

Not sure what to make of this, but the Inquirer is reporting that a group calling themselves The Ninja Team has created a modchip for the Wii that can play backed-up games. It’s apparently a 5-point soldered chip and will be available in the next month. I feel like calling bull on this, but we shall see.
Wii hacked to play backups [TheInquirer] Read More

A study of 2,600 Americans — not a representative sample, I suspect — discovered that a full 18 percent of them pirate movies. What does this mean? It means, by extrapolation, that there are 25 million filthy, horrible downloaders out there. Of that grouping, only a miniscule number used download services like CinemaNow or Amazon Unbox while 80 percent used peer-to-peer piracy… Read More

from T-Mobile.
Super-slim and sophisticated. Slide the Samsung t629 open to reveal an impressive array of features: 1.3 megapixel camera, high-resolution screen, MP3 player, Bluetooth connectivity, and a quad-band worldphone in a stunning silver finish.
Thanks to Samsung and T-Mo for hooking us up. The contest ends on Wednesday, January 31 at noon EST. Read More

Microsoft and T-Mobile are teaming up to show the world the magic of hotspot-enabled Vista. For 90 days after a full Vista purchase customers will be able to use T-Mobile’s national hotspots for free, showing them that Vista and this new wireless technology called “WiFi” can work hand in hand to bring us to a better, brighter future.
Free T-Mobile Hotspot for Vista Users… Read More

on YouTube and did what any self-respecting media company would do these days—it sued. But they’re not suing YouTube. They’re subpoenaing the company to release the name of the offending subscriber.
The “24” episodes in question actually appeared on YouTube before their primetime Jan. 14 premiere on the Fox broadcast network, which spread four hour long episodes… Read More